


Loss

by kiite



Series: Blackbirds and Beeforce [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor 5ds Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 20:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13842912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiite/pseuds/kiite
Summary: Crow was no stranger to loss.





	Loss

The shrill ring of the home phone echoed throughout the house, causing Crow to quickly sit up from where he had fallen asleep on the couch. He scrambled to stop the ringing before it woke up the sleeping kids, who, luckily for Crow, were all pretty heavy sleepers. He caught a glance at the time displayed on the wall clock near the phone; it read two. Who the hell was calling at two in the goddamn morning?

“Whaddyawant…” Crow answered sleepily, sounding much less polite than he would have if he received this call during daylight hours.

“Crow.” The deep voice from the other end snapped Crow out of his daze. He blinked his eyes to fight away the lingering sleep and steeled himself for a real conversation.

“Ushio.” He answered simply. Ushio was not the kind of man who would call him at two in the morning for no good reason. “What’s up?”

There was a brief pause on the other end before Ushio started to speak. “Sorry to call you at this time of night, but I figured you would want to know about this.” He paused again, and Crow heard shuffling from Ushio’s end. “I’m at Domino Municipal Hospital right now. Shinji Weber is here too.”

A million thoughts went through Crow’s head all at once. He felt like the room was spinning while he stared at a spot on the wall, unmoving, mouth half open. He was so afraid; afraid to hear what Ushio had to say next, afraid to ask him to continue. After what felt like hours, Ushio coughed and took Crow’s silence as a signal to continue.

“He’s all right; the doctors patched him up. Said he’ll be fine, given proper time to rest and mend.” He cleared his throat, sounding a little uncertain. “There’s some stuff I’d rather discuss in person, though. Do you think you can head over? Weber also mentioned that he wanted to talk to you, but he didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Fuck. Okay.” Crow ran his free hand through his hair and looked around the room. “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He thanked Ushio and hung up, trying to collect his thoughts. The room hadn’t stopped spinning for him, but he knew he couldn’t waste any more time.

As much as he hated to leave them, Crow equally didn’t want to drag the kids out of bed in the middle of the night to a hospital. He simply had to hope that he was able to return home before they woke up, which would probably be around eight. Just in case he couldn’t, he left a note on the kitchen table telling them where he was and that he’d be back soon. He sincerely hoped that was true.

The Blackbird roared as Crow ripped down the nearly empty highway towards the hospital. He knew he was going much faster than he probably should be, but he hoped going fast would distract his wandering thoughts. It didn’t help nearly as much as he would have liked, as he kept thinking of terrible ways Shinji could be injured. His surroundings blurred even more as he continued to speed up, feeling the wind tear past his face.

The hospital was not particularly crowded as he pulled the Blackbird into a spot near the entrance and made his way into the building. Ushio was one of the few people in the waiting room, and upon seeing Crow, Ushio gestured for him to follow him out into the hallway. Crow obliged, looking around nervously and feeling impatient.

Ushio was in uniform, and he looked extraordinarily tired. “I’ll cut to the chase.” he said, looking down at Crow with his tired eyes. “At about eleven p.m. tonight, security was called because of a fight near someone’s home. Upon arriving at the scene, there were ten men unconscious on the ground, and one standing in the middle of them: that was Mr. Weber. He passed out himself pretty soon after security arrived. The ten men and Mr. Weber were transported to this hospital to receive care.”

Crow took a seat in one of the chairs lining the hall, running a hand through his hair again as he thought. He sighed, and swore, before looking back at up at Ushio. “So… what now?” he asked feebly. It was the only thing he could think to ask.

“Well, about that… There were… extenuating circumstances.” Ushio moved to take a chair directly across from Crow on the other side of the narrow hall. “None of the men involved in the fight were badly hurt, and we already spoke to them. Their group is not particularly fond of dealing with the law, so they chose not to press charges, and left here in quite a hurry. So, this time, there won’t be any legal consequences.” He looked at the clock in the hall. “I can’t promise that next time, though.”

Crow felt the tension leave his body and he sunk down into his chair. “There won’t be a next time—I’m going to give him a stern talking to.” After a brief moment he stood up and stretched, looking both ways down the hall. “Can you point me towards his room? I’ve got a lot to say to him.” Crow was doing his best to play off his anxiety with a playful tone, but he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.

Ushio gave him a soft look, before standing up himself. He pointed down the hallway. “Take a left there, and then it’s the second door on the right. I didn’t exactly tell him you were coming, but I did tell him the same thing I just told you.” He sighed and gave Crow the best smile he could muster. “You guys stay out of trouble, alright? You’re good folks, and you have those kids to look out for, too.” He looked at his watch and grimaced. “Back to work, I guess. See ya.”

Crow thanked him again for everything and set off towards Shinji’s room. He still hadn’t really worked out what he wanted to say to his boyfriend. He was scared that if he didn’t already know what he wanted to say, he might just start crying like a dumbass. He felt like he was barely holding it together as is.

He knocked gently on the door, only opening it when he heard a quiet “come in” from inside. Any idea of what he might say was lost when he saw Shinji sitting there in a hospital bed, with his arm in a sling and an awful black eye. Initially, Shinji looked shocked, clearly not expecting to see Crow. After the initial surprise, he put on a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck with his good arm.

“Um… I might have fucked up a little, sorry.” Shinji was doing his best to be playful to try to lighten the mood, but he wasn’t meeting Crow’s eyes anymore. He was looking at his lap, covered with the white hospital sheet. For a moment, Crow didn’t move; he simply stood in the doorway unmoving. Then, he briskly walked over to Shinji’s bed, pulled up a chair from the corner, and forcefully sat down.

“Shinji… I thought you were done with this. I thought you were done with fighting random strangers in alleys. You told me you wouldn’t do this anymore, Shinji.” Crow was speaking lowly, looking intensely at his fists curled in his own lap. He could feel tears pricking at the corner of his eyes and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his composure for much longer. “You fucking promised me.”

He heard Shinji inhale as he prepared to respond, but Crow wasn’t done yet. He hadn’t said everything he wanted to and he knew that once he officially had his breakdown, he wouldn’t be very comprehensible. “You just- you don’t understand what it’s like for me, Shinji. I’ve experienced loss so fucking much that when I got that phone call, I was nearly certain that I was going to find out you died. T-that you died and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.” Now he was crying, curling in on himself in the cheap plastic chair as Shinji looked at him in concern.

Crow started thinking, and he couldn’t stop thinking. He thought about his parents, unsuspecting, struck from behind by Zero Reverse. About Pearson, burning, telling him to take the Blackbird and go. About returning to his hideout to find all the kids under his care gone, sacrificed to some ancient god he didn’t give a shit about. About Martha; he hadn’t actually been there when Martha had been sacrificed, but he vividly remembered Yuusei telling him what had happened, and the overwhelming grief he had felt.

And then he thought about kneeling under the overpass on the rocks, clutching Trust Guardian to his chest. Wailing in anguish, fully convinced that his last words to Jack were angry, accusatory ones. And he thought about Yuusei falling, slowly, unbelievably slowly, into the Moment Reactor. Outstretching his arms in a desperate attempt to grab his foster brother, his best friend, to save him. Watching him disappear into the iridescent light below while Crow could do absolutely nothing. Watching him die.

Crow was sobbing now, taking gasping breaths as he tried to speak. “I w-was so lucky that I--that I got so many of them back. All that m-magic and shit is way beyond me, but I-- if you had d-died tonight, I know for a f-fucking fact no magic would have brought you back. P-please, Shinji, I can’t lose anyone else, I--I can’t lose you.” Shinji moved to put a hand on Crow’s back, and when Crow didn’t make a move to push him away, he started rubbing slow circles into his boyfriend’s back.

“I know. I’m sorry.” Shinji was repeating, softly, gently, genuinely. And he did know; Crow had never been secretive, so he had told Shinji most of this stuff throughout their relationship. Shinji knew; knew how bad what he had done was, how badly he hurt Crow, and he was genuinely sorry. They sat there like that for a while, Crow slowly calming down, Shinji rubbing circles into his back and apologizing. Shinji broke the relative silence, speaking in a quiet voice.

“I’m done for real this time, Crow. No more dumb, senseless fighting for me.” He pulled Crow into a half hug, the best he could do from his current position. “I’m not going anywhere, alright? I’m not going anywhere.” Crow leaned into Shinji’s chest and nodded weakly. “You better not.” he mumbled, muffled by Shinji’s shirt.

Shinji just smiled and hugged him tighter, whispering sweet nothings into Crow’s ear as the emotionally exhausted D-Wheeler drifted off to sleep in his boyfriend’s lap.


End file.
